Sheffield Tigers’ Jamie Broadley helping to tackle coronavirus threat

Now, with the well-being of 30,000 NHS employees to worry about as coronavirus spreads across the country, he finds himself embroiled in a far greater and more significant fight.

For the time being, rugby union will take a back seat as the 30-year-old gives his undivided attention to his role across two Derbyshire foundation trusts.

The Tigers’ head coach is ultimately responsible for ensuring that NHS staff are able to remain where they are needed – on the frontline and saving lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Essentially, my role at the moment involves communicating with staff about the current challenges that they are facing to find out what we can do to help keep them out there providing care,” Broadley said.

“I co-ordinate the support services that the frontline staff might need to ensure they can stay on the frontline.

“There’s the occupational health and well-being side of things, but it’s also about finding more practical solutions to things like childcare for employees.

“There’s no rule book for something like this. The situation is unprecedented. We’re normally responsible for around 7,000 people, but now it’s staff across Derbyshire, so it’s more like 30,000.

“I’m already pretty used to how busy it is now and the fact that rugby has disappeared for the season means that I have more time to focus on this work.”

The sacrifices of NHS staff risking their own lives and isolating themselves from their loved ones in order to deliver care to the needy in recent weeks has left the nation very much in their debt.

And, while Broadley isn’t operating directly on the frontline himself at this stage, he will be soon.

“I’m not exactly scrubbed up and dealing with all this face-to-face at the moment, but I’ve got my deep-clean training next week which means I can then get involved in helping with the clean-up operation going forwards,” he added.

“I already have a role to play, but this is a chance to do my bit on the frontline.”

As far as the bigger picture is concerned, Broadley warns that the worst is still yet to come for the UK, though he was able to offer some words of encouragement with regards to the NHS’s capability to cope with the coronavirus outbreak.

“This is the calm before the storm,” he said.

“A lot of work is being done now in anticipation of when we expect the number of cases to peak in two to three weeks time.

“The analogy that is being used is that this is a marathon not a sprint, but you have to sprint the first eight miles in order to get ahead.

“In Derbyshire, we’re managing to suppress the virus quite effectively, whereas in Sheffield the numbers are an awful lot higher than what we are dealing with here.

“The national models say that we will cope with the peak – just. But it will be close.”

When one considers what Broadley is currently contending with, rugby pales into insignificance by comparison.

But, once the coronavirus crisis passes, the ex-Rotherham Titans wing will be able to switch focus back to his duties with the Tigers.

He operates with one of the lowest budgets in National Two, but had once again done enough to keep the Dore Moor outfit’s heads above water in the league standings when 2019/20 was cancelled by the RFU.

“Heading into the last six games of the season we were in a bit of a dog fight, though our win over Otley in our final fixture before matches were suspended was a big result for us,” Broadley added.

“We don’t make a secret of the fact that we’re at the bottom end of the league in terms of budget, so it’s a challenge to compete, but I think we’re doing okay.

“There’s obviously a lot of uncertainty at the moment in terms of what the RFU plan to do about ending the season early, and obviously there are financial concerns for clubs up and down the country, so we’re just looking forward to getting back to it as soon as we’re able to do so.”